Steve Gunn: Could Obama's paranoia be behind IRS scandal?

Barack Obama is clearly the most paranoid, thin-skinned American president since Richard Nixon.

The three major scandals swirling around the Obama White House are different in nature.

The Benghazi bungling is the most tragic. The Justice Department’s raiding of Associated Press telephone records is the most constitutionally troubling.

But my gut tells me the one scandal that will cause the president the most headaches -- and keep his agenda in mothballs for much of his final term -- is the bizarre and disturbing misuse of power by the Internal Revenue Service.

Several dozen tea party activists and other concerned citizens, wave signs and small American flags as they march outside the main Internal Revenue Service office on May 21, 2013, in Phoenix. Our columnist thinks the IRS scandal is the worst one facing President Barack Obama. AP FILE PHOTO

In the event you live in a cave and haven’t heard, the IRS has acknowledged using its power to harass conservative organizations that apply for a non-profit, tax-free status. Department officials admit that staff members slowed the approval process for conservative groups while greasing the skids for more liberal organizations.

They also admit harassing conservative applicants with inappropriate questions, like asking for the names of members and financial supporters.

In short, the IRS was using its enormous legal muscle to play political favorites, and that’s a very big no-no.

Why do I get the strongest feeling that this nasty little game of political targeting may have originated in the White House?

Because Barack Obama is clearly the most paranoid, thin-skinned American president since Richard Nixon. And paranoia is a sure ticket to failure for a chief executive. If he were alive today, I’m sure Nixon would agree with that assessment.

Obama has never been able to take the heat that comes with manning the presidential kitchen. He has always taken criticism very personally, as if the mere suggestion that he may something less than a terrific leader is tantamount to treason.

The president has demonstrated his inability to deal with criticism on too many occasions to count. Three, in particular, stick in my mind.

It was during his first term that he became tired of the constant criticism mounted by Fox News, the conservative television news network. So on one occasion he invited the White House press corps to some sort of special presentation, but attempted to exclude Fox News.

To their credit, the other television networks -- including the notoriously liberal NBC -- refused to take part in the event unless all news organizations were welcome on an equal basis. The White House folded and allowed Fox in the door.

I also remember a roundtable discussion of national leaders at the White House a few years ago regarding health care, I believe. One of the invited participants was Republican Sen. John McCain, who of course lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama.

At one point, when it was his turn to speak, McCain expressed an opinion that Obama didn’t care for. The president responded by snapping at McCain, reminding him that the election was over and he was the loser.

If he didn’t want to hear anything from the loser, why did Obama invite McCain in the first place?

I also remember a news clip from a campaign rally during the 2010 mid-term elections. Obama was talking about the Republicans when he whined to his supporters, “They treat me like a dog!”

What American president has not been routinely abused by political opponents? It’s always been a part of the game -- Lincoln, Jackson, and FDR put up with far worse abuse. Washington and Jefferson had their bitter critics. Does Obama believe he’s somehow entitled to more gentle treatment than those great leaders?

We all know what presidential paranoia can lead to. Nixon may have been the most uptight man to ever occupy the Oval Office, and he developed an enemies list and used the IRS and other federal agencies to harass his perceived persecutors.

Is Obama, or at least some of his top lieutenants, guilty of the same type of thing? Nobody can prove such an accusation, at least at the moment. But it’s very difficult to believe that such a widespread, detailed political harassment scheme was plotted and carried out by a few low-level staffers at the IRS center in Cincinnati, which the administration claims.

Nasty political tricks are generally created at the highest levels, then handed down to everyday bureaucrats to administer. My gut tells me the unfolding evidence from this disturbing scandal will pave a trail to the White House, if not to the president himself.